While Seattle coach Pete Carroll acknowledged Monday on KIRO-AM’s “Brock and Salk” show that he was interested in signing either Colin Kaepernick or Robert Griffin III as the backup to Russell Wilson, by all indications, this is the first time an NFL GM has reached out to Kaepernick’s agent.

When asked specifically about Kaepernick or Griffin, Carroll responded, “We’re looking at everybody. We really are. We’ve been tracking everything that’s going on, and we’ve got cap and roster issues and stuff like that that we’re still trying to manage properly. But quite frankly, yes, we are looking at all those guys.”

Schneider and Carroll have a strong working relationship, with both men responsible for helping assemble the Seahawks’ Super Bowl-caliber roster. Earl Thomas was an easy choice as a first-round pick in 2010, but Schneider did a wonderful job identifying Wilson, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor in later rounds of the 2010, 2011 and 2012 drafts. Carroll, for whatever faults he may have as a coach, is phenomenal at developing players in the secondary.

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For all of his shortcomings as a player, Kaepernick would fit the Seahawks’ scheme. Current 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan made a very good point that one of the reasons Kaepernick remained unsigned this offseason was the difficulties involved with catering an entire offense to a dual-threat quarterback. Wilson is the significantly better player but he, like Kaepernick, thrives as a dual-threat quarterback. If Wilson were injured, Carroll would have to do very little to tailor his team’s offense around Kaepernick’s strength as a runner.

The other reason the Seahawks may be in the market for a backup quarterback is the relative instability behind Wilson. Top backup Trevone Boykin was arrested twice in a span of 11 days during this offseason. On March 27, he was arrested under suspicion of public intoxication and marijuana possession. Less than two weeks later, he was arrested for a possible probation violation stemming from a guilty plea in 2015 for misdemeanor resisting arrest. Behind Boykin is only Jake Heaps, who has never played a meaningful NFL snap in his career.

It’s interesting that Kaepernick’s agent received a call while there are no reports that Seattle reached out to Griffin. By all indications, Griffin is the younger and more talented player with higher upside. The one thing keeping Griffin from getting interest seems to be his extensive, and frankly terrifying, injury history.

There are two potential pitfalls with the Kaepernick signing.

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First, his trainer has come out and said that the former Nevada quarterback is training “as if he’s a starting quarterback.” One of the biggest questions surrounding Kaepernick has been whether he can accept a clear-cut backup role, and the commensurate pay. He could easily shoot down these concerns by coming out and publicly addressing them, but he has yet to do so. One downside of having a roster as talented as the Seahawks’ is that cap space becomes a precious commodity. They simply can’t afford to pay Kaepernick big bucks.

The other potential pitfall? Well that should be obvious. Even after saying he would stand for the national anthem this upcoming season, Kaepernick remains an incredibly polarizing figure.

Few fan bases are as passionate or vocal as the Seahawks’ “12th Man.” It’ll be interesting to see if the divisive Colin Kaepernick has any sort of impact on them, one way or another.